


What If It's You? And What If It's Me?

by FrazzledSquidz



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Babbling, Biting, Blow Jobs, Camaraderie, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Dave & Klaus Hargreeves During Vietnam, Declarations Of Love, Developing Relationship, Drug Use, First Time, First Time Blow Jobs, First Time Topping, Fluff and Smut, Getting Together, Hand Jobs, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Kissing, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Sad Ending, Sappy, Tattoos, Vietnam War, bad sixties slang, but who knows, probably really intense oocing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 13:48:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18700855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrazzledSquidz/pseuds/FrazzledSquidz
Summary: Klaus, of course, fit in with the Sky Soldiers perfectly. He was loud and obnoxious and down for any challenge the guys could think of. He loved doing crazy shit and making people laugh with him and sharing fat joints. It was more of a surprise that he fit with Dave so perfectly. Since that time on the bus they found themselves attached at the hip, and Dave was always looking over his shoulder only to find Klaus right there in his periphery, shooting him a manic grin.





	What If It's You? And What If It's Me?

**Author's Note:**

> You guys I literally have no idea where this came from. One minute I'm studying for a Micro final and the next my brain is like "Okay but what if you created a 9k-word story about a character who had one line in one episode and maybe twenty seconds of screen time."
> 
> So obviously I made most of this shit up.

Klaus had been a confusing, beautiful disaster since the moment he startled Dave awake at base that night. The guy had obviously just been dropped in the jungle from boot and his tent-mates had decided to haze him: get him drunk, wrap him in a towel, send him out to stumble around the Vietnamese wild. It was just bad timing that he wound up in the tent of the Sky Soldiers the moment before the Charlies started shooting. 

Dave had always been a cool head, a nice guy. In school he would sit next to the quiet kids in the cafeteria or take extra time to play ball with the guys that weren’t very good. In the army he was always covering for his buddies, taking the blame from their superiors with an abashed grin. He didn’t necessarily want to be in a war, but he did want to help his friends and family and country and, well, if he shot more in the air than at opposing bodies that was his own business. 

So, naturally, he introduced himself to the newbie as soon as he could. “I’ll take you around Saigon on leave,” Dave promised him. The other guy was named Klaus and he soaked up Dave’s kindness and attention like he had never been told a nice thing in his life. It endeared Dave to him immediately; how could he resist? (His mom would’ve been so proud.)

Klaus, of course, fit in with the Sky Soldiers perfectly. He was loud and obnoxious and down for any challenge the guys could think of. He loved doing crazy shit and making people laugh with him and sharing fat joints. It was more of a surprise that he fit with Dave so perfectly. Since that time on the bus they found themselves attached at the hip, and Dave was always looking over his shoulder only to find Klaus right there in his periphery, shooting him a manic grin. 

Klaus was a magnet who drew everyone’s attention to him, but Dave had no idea what Klaus saw in him. Everyone back home, and even some of the guys now, called him “queer” and “soft” for helping wounded animals and always being the first one to volunteer for something. But Klaus seemed to find these traits singularly amazing. When the team teased him for taking an extra pack from someone struggling on a march, Klaus looked at him like he’d created the stars. When he held back jungle branches for the guys or picked up a little Vietnamese kid who’d tripped in front of them or made sure that everyone had their boots out to dry at night at base, Klaus was right there helping him and snarking back at the guys who called Dave an old lady. 

“What’s a guy like you doing in the middle of a war?” Klaus asked him one night when Dave was keeping him company during a smoke. 

Dave laughed. “Drafted, of course!” Klaus blinked, like he was surprised. Dave had assumed he’d been drafted, too, but maybe Klaus had actually signed up for this? “What about you? Why are you here?” 

Klaus took a long drag from his smoke. Dave could hear the small pops of the tobacco and paper burning, could smell the sweetness of the marijuana. “Not much else going on. Also nothing builds character like some quality time in Nam!” 

Dave felt like he spent so much time not knowing how to respond to this enigmatic man. “I mean, I don’t hate all of it. But I’d rather be home, you know?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t, like, fuck off to Canada or something. That’s a thing, right? Dodging the draft?”

He shrugged. “If I’d done that I wouldn’t have been able to see my mom or my sisters again. I figured it was worth doing this for a little while and then getting that GI bill so I could help them out.”

“Sisters!” Klaus exclaimed, like it explained so much. “Obviously. Of course. Yes, you have to be the oldest. I’m right, aren’t I.”

Dave found himself laughing and nodding. “Yeah, you’re right on the money. There’s the twins- they’re teenagers- and the baby who… Gosh, she’s nine now. Not much of a baby, huh?” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a tattered, dirty stack of pictures and letters from home. He leafed through the pile until he found his favorite and showed it to Klaus. “They’re a gas.”

Some kind of smile stole over Klaus’s face as his green eyes drank in the photograph. Dave’s mom was sitting on a bench in the park by their house with the baby was in her lap while the twins flanked her on either side. His mom was smiling beautifully but the twins were making stupid faces and the baby looked dazed from the afternoon sun.

“They’re beautiful, Dave.” 

Klaus had this voice-thing that he did, something with his tone or inflection or whatever. And Dave hadn’t noticed it up until he realized that it was gone whenever Klaus was being honest or open or sincere. He found he liked Klaus’s honest voice better. 

Klaus grinned over at him, handing the picture back. “Put you in a dress and some makeup and you’d look just like your mom!”

Dave laughed, even though he was disappointed the voice-thing was back. He took the photo, added it to his pile, and carefully returned the package to his breast pocket. “I bet you look like your mom, too.” He could easily picture a female version of Klaus with long black curls and eyelashes that stretched forever. 

Klaus snorted around a giggle. "Yeah all I'd need is some bleach and a fifties-style dress and we'd be twins!" He finished off his smoke. “So daddy dearest isn’t in the picture?”

Dave shrugged. “He went to the store for some milk one day and never came back. I’m sure there’s more but my mom won’t bad-mouth him. My dad actually left after the twins were born and then my mom married another guy and they had the baby, but then he died in a factory accident.” He grinned wryly. “She thinks she’s cursed or something.” 

Klaus waved that away. “Men are all worthless slobs anyway!” 

Dave snorted. “You’re unreal. But okay, that’s my life story. What about you?”

Klaus grinned over at him, his eyes wild and his smile crazy. “But you already know it! I’m the fae creature that appeared in your tent from another time and place, Twilight Zone-style. Here to brighten your day and make you laugh!”

God help him, Dave did.  
\---

Dave didn’t love the war, but he did like his team. Even when the guys drove him crazy it just made him think, _This is what it must be like to have brothers._ And, despite their ribbing, the guys had his back, too. They all fought and slept and cried and laughed and bled together and, one day during a communal R&R, they all got tattooed together, too. 

It was Dave’s first and it was not a great feeling, but Klaus couldn’t stop giggling during his. The guys told him he was psychotic and he just waved his fingers at them cheekily, his palm tattoos rippling with the movement. 

Klaus got done first and another guy hesitantly took his spot. Klaus skipped over to Dave and joined him on the bench. “Want me to hold your hand, Davey?” 

Dave grimaced at him. “Maybe. I’m surprised how much this hurts!”

Klaus laughed giddily, strangely. “Oh come on! I got my first one as a kid! See?” He turned his arm, flashing the red umbrella that Dave had become familiar with. 

“What?” Dave knew he was supposed to smile along with him and call him bad, but this felt… wrong. 

“Yeah! I was kidnapped and forced to join this weird cult and sometimes it was fun but sometimes it was terrible but now we all have the same tattoo and I call them my family.”

He wasn’t doing the voice-thing. Dave felt like a hole had opened up where his heart was. Even though he would take a bullet for any of the Sky Soldiers, the idea of someone hurting Klaus, especially as a kid, made Dave feel a little unhinged. 

Something in his expression must have given him away, because Klaus met his eyes and blinked and, for one beautiful moment, his face was completely open. But then he blinked again and the mask was back on, stretching his lips into a grin. “You’re so serious, Dave!” Klaus smacked a loud kiss on Dave’s cheek and bounced off the table, heading over to harass someone else. 

Dave looked over at the buzzing pen stabbing into his bicep and the slant-eyed man passively tattooing him. Somehow it didn’t hurt as much anymore.  
\---

After that, Dave started paying more attention to all the things Klaus did and didn’t say. So much of his life was a huge question mark for Dave, but he found that he wanted to know every little detail about the other man. 

On marches they often found themselves walking and chatting together, naturally pairing up as boredom from trekking through the jungle set in. Dave liked to use this time to carefully ask questions about Klaus’s past. Sometimes he was relaxed and distracted and answered him easily, but other times Klaus got skittish and found excuses to hang out with someone else for awhile. 

Dave knew from experience that his face was an open book, so it wasn’t a surprise when one of the guys noticed his dismay when Klaus left him one day. The shock came when that guy said, “Aww, are you sad your boyfriend is with someone else?”

The word _boyfriend_ thundered through him like it was the first time he’d ever heard the word. It wrapped around his brain, took up a cheerful residence in his stomach, made his heart pound from more than just the march. Dave had heard of two guys getting together, of course. (This was the army, after all.) But the word ‘boyfriend’ made him think of mushy stuff, like kisses and holding hands and being there when the other person needed it. 

God, yes, he wanted to do all of that with Klaus. All of that and more. Dave thought his head would catch on fire with how hot his face was. 

Once the idea was planted in his brain he couldn’t let it go. More than that, it hijacked Dave’s mind and everything became hyper-focused on Klaus. They were already tight, but Dave became breathless with the way Klaus looked when he slept in the cot next to him, his snarky voice and teasing smile, the way his eyes were so bright and so beautiful. Dave found himself noticing everything about Klaus, and eventually became aware that Klaus was noticing everything about him, too. 

_Oh_ , Dave found himself thinking one night as a group of them were playing cards in their tent. They were all in a circle and he was next to Klaus, their knees pressed together tightly. Even though his other knee was against someone else’s, _Klaus’s_ was the only thing he could think about. He used to laugh as buddies of his turned into jelly whenever some stone fox batted her eyes at them, but now he understood it. All he wanted was for Klaus to look only at him but also if that happened Dave knew he would spontaneously combust. It was too much and it was never enough. 

Klaus glanced over at him through his eyelashes and Dave knew, he just knew, that Klaus was feeling the same. It was like their heartbeats were echoing each other.  
\---

Their next R&R to Saigon found the Sky Soldiers at this club where all the girls were thin and gorgeous with silky black hair and red lips. They all started drinking together and slowly pairing off on the dance floor and both Klaus and Dave found a girl each as well but kept gravitating towards each other in the end. 

They were dancing to some disco song when Klaus bumped against him. They were both laughing and a little loaded and light was bursting out of every pore of Klaus’s body as he grinned at Dave. Klaus said something but the music was too loud for him to hear, so Dave leaned in closer. Klaus took a step forward, eliminating every bit of space between them, and pressed his lips to Dave’s ear as he murmured, “Drink?”

Dave turned, bumping his forehead affectionately, before grabbing Klaus’s hand and dragging him over to the bar. They drank their sticky whiskey shots like Dave had seen people do at weddings and kept smiling at each other but Dave wanted more. He needed more. 

Taking Klaus’s slender hand again, he led him towards the back of the club, where the music was more muffled. They leaned against a wall and it took everything Dave had to keep his eyes off the cut of Klaus’s hips, clearly visible in the gap between his pants and that tiny sweater he was wearing. 

“Hey sexy,” Klaus purred, leaning closer. “Come here often?”

Dave laughed. His heartbeat was louder than the music. “Only if you’re here.”

A wild giggle escaped Klaus. “That’s not how that goes!”

“ _That_ ,” Dave blurted, suddenly needing Klaus to understand. 

He blinked and rose a dark eyebrow. “Come again?”

“No,” Dave groaned. That voice-thing was back. He reached up, cupping Klaus’s jaw and the back of his neck and going breathless with how dark Klaus’s eyes got in response. But he had a point to make. “You talk differently when you’re being you.” 

Klaus smirked wider. “I think you’re drunk, Davey. What do you call it? _Loaded, man._ ”

“I’m not.” He was serious. He needed Klaus to understand this. “I like you when you’re honest. Your voice does this different thing and it’s… beautiful. You’re beautiful, Klaus.” 

There was a second where Dave thought he’d messed it all up, a second where Klaus stopped smiling and his eyes started shining and Dave was sure he was going to pull away but instead he leaned in and Dave had never kissed another guy before but he absolutely _had to_ kiss Klaus right then or he would die. 

Their lips met and Dave felt like the planets had aligned, like his heart had grown wings, like every corny thing he had ever heard about sparks and fireworks was true times a thousand. 

They kissed forever and for only half a second and when Klaus pulled back Dave tried to draw him closer but Klaus’s hands were on his face and he was saying, “Dave, Dave listen,” in his perfect voice. “You’re the beautiful one.”  
\---

Klaus stole a bottle of amber liquid from behind the bar and they found the hotel the army had rented out for their leave. They waved at the other guys they passed but also didn’t slow down until they got to a room where Dave closed and locked the door and felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. 

Klaus turned and smiled and Dave was on him, hands framing his skinny hips and lips molding against his. Klaus hummed and cupped his face, licking into his mouth. They swayed together for a moment, just panting and kissing and Dave had no idea what he was doing but he wanted to keep doing it but Klaus was drawing back and saying, “Wait, wait.”

Dave opened his eyes, though he hadn’t remembered closing them. He wanted to take a step back but Klaus was still holding onto his face and his body heat was so delicious. “What?” he murmured, eyes dropping to Klaus’s lips accidentally.

Klaus smiled, kissed him briefly, and drew back, putting space between them. “Listen, Dave, there’s literally nothing I want to do more right now than climb you like a tree but we need to, god, we need to talk for just a minute, okay?”

Dave, with the most effort he had ever put into anything in his entire life, dropped his hands from Klaus’s hips and stepped back, sitting on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his face, hoping that would help him focus. “Okay. Okay, yes.” 

Sighing, Klaus sat beside him. He twisted the cap off the bottle he'd stolen and brought it to his lips for a swig. He passed it to Dave who also took a drink, his throat flexing around the burn of the alcohol. Klaus took another small sip before capping it and setting it on the floor. 

“Okay,” Klaus said again, but then paused. “Jesus fuck I’ve never actually, like, had this talk before.”

Dave smiled, reaching over and slipping his hand underneath Klaus's. “What?”

“Oh my god stop being so perfect for just a minute.” But Klaus was holding his hand tightly and bent over to trade a brief, sweet kiss. “Okay. I’m assuming you’ve never done this before, right?”

“Done what? Kissed a guy? No.” Dave rubbed the calloused pad of his thumb over the soft skin on the back of Klaus’s hand. 

“Had sex with a guy.” 

Dave’s heart choked him for just a minute. “I- oh, god, can we? I, no, not with a guy.” He struggled for a minute; every drop of blood in his body was currently south of where he needed it to be. He had been so focused on _Klaus_ his imagination had never gone much further than where they were at now. “I’ve done it with a couple of chicks but… But it’s never felt anything like this before, Klaus.”

Klaus smiled at him like he was the sun after a long, lonely night. “Are you sure? I don’t want… I don’t want you to regret anything, you know?”

What was he even talking about? “Please can we keep kissing?”

A laugh that sounded a little like a sob escaped Klaus, but he was nodding. “Fucking yes absolutely.” And then they were. 

Klaus’s mouth was hot and sweet and tasted like whiskey. Dave laced his fingers through the back of Klaus’s hair and pulled, just a little, trying to get him to open his mouth wider, and the gasp it drew from the other man made Dave’s dick throb harshly. 

“Fuck,” Klaus panted, drawing away. “Lay back.” He pushed at Dave’s chest to clarify his meaning and Dave happily did so, the cheap hotel blanket crinkling underneath him. Klaus plastered himself along Dave’s side, slipping a hand up his shirt as their mouths met again. 

Dave found his hips shifting absently as Klaus’s cool fingers traced his abs and gently teased his nipples, but he wanted to touch, too. He rolled onto his side, slipping his hand around Klaus's lower back, rubbing a thumb over the jut of his hip before pushing his fingertips up along his spine. 

Dave felt adrift as they kissed and touched each other, sharing oxygen until in ran low. "Can I-?" he asked breathlessly, pushing Klaus's shirt up. 

"God you're so- yes, fuck, yes." Klaus squirmed, lifting his arms and helping Dave pull the tiny sweater off. He framed Dave's jaw with his cool hands and returned to kissing him deeply for a moment before breaking away again. "Wait, okay, shit. Are you- is this okay? Too fast? Too slow? Do you even want to have sex right now? God I've never- not that I'm entirely sober now but-" 

Dave wanted to listen to Klaus for forever, but also wanted to make him speechless. He spread one warm, broad palm over his left pec and rubbed the heel against Klaus's nipple, making him gasp and focus back on Dave. "Everything is amazing," he reassured him with a grin. He kissed the tip of Klaus's nose just to see him wrinkle it. "And you obviously know what you're doing so…" 

Was he being cocky when he leaned away, pulled his shirt off, and fell onto his back, spreading his arms in invitation? Maybe, but it also darkened Klaus’s eyes and deepened his breathing and inspired a new flood of muttered babbling, so he didn't feel too bad about it. 

Klaus swung a leg over his stomach, grabbing his flanks as he kissed Dave deeply, but briefly. He moved down, biting at Dave's neck, collarbone, and chest, sucking red marks wherever he could get his mouth and drawing noises from Dave he'd never made before. 

"Fuck, you're so hot," Klaus panted against his abs, tonguing his belly button.

"Oh my god," Dave groaned. He stuffed his hands under the pillow behind his head, unsure what else to do with them. "Klaus-" 

But then Klaus did this thing where he twisted his fingers in Dave's belt loops and bit at that little fold of denim over his fly and murmured, right into the heat of him, "Can I suck your dick?" 

Dave went light-headed so fast black spots danced in his vision. " _What?_ Are you- Have you- I never-"

Klaus pushed himself up, kneeling between Dave's legs with his hands on either side of his hips. "Holy fuck is cock-sucking not a thing in the sixties?"

Dave stuttered something, rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes and trying to reboot his brain. But Klaus was opening his jeans and wrapping a slender hand around his dick and then licking the tip and _putting it in his mouth_ and Dave grabbed Klaus's hair and fucking cried out, feeling like his heart was dipping into his stomach and heat was curling around his calves and tangling together in his lower belly and it was a million times more intense than any pleasure he'd ever felt before and it only took a couple of minutes before he was bucking up and coming explosively down Klaus's throat and yelling so loud there was no way the whole building didn't hear him. 

Dave collapsed bonelessly on the bed, his broad chest heaving as he tried to remember how to actually breathe. Klaus sat up, wiping his mouth ( _oh my god_ ), somehow managing to look both smug and wanton. 

Dave felt like he was on fire. He pulled Klaus up and rolled over on top of him, kissing him deeply. There was definitely a part of him that cringed at the knowledge of what he was licking out of the other man's mouth, but the larger part of him was fucking desperate to make Klaus feel even a fraction of the pleasure he'd just experienced. 

His time with women had been hasty, fumbling, awkward, more about getting off than anything else. But with Klaus- God, he wanted to live in this bed, in this hotel room, learning every single thing about Klaus and his body and the way it danced with Dave's. How long had they known each other? Four months? So much time wasted not doing this. 

Klaus was moaning and squirming beneath him as Dave pet a hand down his slender chest and tried to swallow Klaus's tongue. He shouldn’t have been surprised by the hard bulk he encountered between his legs, but it was a brief shock. The way the touch made Klaus’s breath go ragged against his mouth, though, encouraged him to press the heel of his hand more firmly along the length of him. 

Klaus was mumbling something- “God this is such PG-shit and I’m so fucking close already what are you doing to me fucking christ-” so Dave rubbed him a little harder just to hear him gasp and then yanked at the button on his jeans until they fell open beneath his hand. Klaus wasn’t wearing any underwear, so Dave gently manuevered him out of his jeans and gripped the hot length of him. 

Klaus’s hands were in his hair, gently scratching around his ears and along the back of his neck. He was panting out these little moans against his mouth that were making Dave hard again as he slowly stroked Klaus, using the precome at the tip as lube. It was a lot like touching himself, except it was strangely backwards and way more intense with the other man squirming and bucking up against him. 

Dave started pumping his hand faster, desperate to see Klaus fall apart. He drew back a little to see Klaus’s face, the way his brow wrinkled in a mix of pleasure and pain. One of Klaus’s hands dropped to curl around Dave’s bicep as he arched his neck, his small cries slowly growing louder.

“Are you close?” Dave murmured, hopeless with the idea that Klaus might come because of him. 

Klaus opened his eyes, staring up at him like he was the only thing in the world. “Shit fuck yeah I’ve been close I just- fuck, do you really want to see me lose my shit?”

Dave kissed him, briefly. “Yes. God yes.”

“Bite me?” The hand that had been around his arm dropped, fingertips tracing along the shadow of his collarbone. 

Dave blinked, taken aback by how hot the idea made him. Was that bad? That he wanted to hurt the person he also wanted to love? “B-bite you?”

Klaus moaned, dropping his head and arching his back again, hips jerking sporadically. “Fuck. Fuck yes. Do it. Please do it, baby, please please please-”

And so Dave did. He brought his lips right to where Klaus’s fingers rested against his own skin, kissing them briefly before he latched his teeth around his brittle collarbone and bit roughly, never slowing the other hand pumping Klaus. The other man gasped deeply once, twice, his whole body convulsing like he was being shocked, then shouted and came fitfully between them, Dave gently working his dick until he was done and pressing a kiss to the red indents his teeth had left behind.  
\---

They wriggled the rest of the way out of their pants, unable to stop grinning at each other. Dave brought a washcloth over and cleaned them both off before falling on top of Klaus, hugging him tightly. Klaus squawked under his body weight but laughed, looping his own arms around Dave’s shoulders and eliminating every inch of space between them. 

Dave nosed under Klaus’s ear, inhaling the sweet smell of him, some cross of whiskey and smoke and sweat. His joy was a vibrant, living thing, like an enormous golden fish swimming circles in his chest and reflecting light off his insides. “I’m so happy,” he told Klaus, because he wanted him to know. 

Klaus didn’t say anything, only held him tighter. But it was okay; their hearts echoed each other now. Dave knew he was happy, too. 

They fell asleep like that, curled up into each other as close as they could be. Dave woke in the middle of the night, blinking the sweat out of his eyes. The thick heat had driven him and Klaus apart at some point. It was stifling even in the dark. Dave rolled quietly out of bed and flipped on the ceiling fan. As it started its lackluster rotations he crossed the room and opened the window, letting the cooler night air and some of the city light in.

Klaus’s face was illuminated by a faint neon glow, giving him an otherworldly look. Or, as otherworldly as someone could look with their mouth hanging open around a snore. Klaus slept incredibly deeply, to the point where sometimes even Charlie fire wouldn’t wake him. The guys had teased him about that since they were all restless, jittery sleepers themselves, but Klaus had just grinned and said it was a lot quieter in the jungle, even in the midst of a war, than it had been at home. 

Dave sat on the edge of the bed, stroking a hand down the length of Klaus’s back. He was splayed across most of the mattress, his arms and legs a graceful sprawl. The lights from outside made his wet skin shine and made his dark eyelashes appear even longer than they already were. 

Not for the first time, Dave wondered. About Klaus, where he had come from, what his life had been like before Dave had met him. Why he sometimes had nightmares and other times kept looking around him, like he was missing or searching for somebody. Why he was always the first to volunteer for the random pills the army gave them to “boost morale and performance” and the first to roll and share a joint. Why he almost never said what he meant. 

Dave wanted to know everything, but every time he asked Klaus gave evasive non-answers. Or answers that sounded true coming from him but couldn’t possibly be. Dave was patient and respected Klaus’s privacy, but it didn’t stop the ache in his chest that wanted to _know._

Dave sighed, feeling sleep settle over his shoulders heavily. He rolled over Klaus smoothly and then manhandled the other until he was on top of Dave, using his chest as a pillow instead of the thin mattress and old hotel comforter. Klaus snored happily away, curling into Dave and mumbling something he couldn’t make out before he settled down again. Dave wrapped a hand around his waist, holding him close, breathing in the smell of their bodies, the musk of the room, the damp jungle air outside.  
\---

Everything and nothing changed. They were still tight, still horsed around with the rest of the troop, still took R&R and fired guns and marched and flew in choppers and were scared out of their minds and bored to tears together. The only real thing that changed was at night, after they’d had dinner and hung out with the other guys on base. If they were lucky they could sneak off somewhere, but most nights they just loosely tangled their fingers together between their cots, grinning at each other in the dark until sleep stole over them. 

They spoke more. Klaus told Dave that he had six brothers and sisters but he was only really close with one, Ben, who he hadn’t heard from since he got to Vietnam. His mother was kind but distant and his dad was a sadistic prick who had died not too long before Klaus got shipped out. 

“Where did you grow up?” Dave asked him idly one day during a long, hot march. 

There was a brief pause. “New York City, baby!” Which explained so much about his mannerisms and speech to Dave, a guy who’d grown up in a town with more corn than humans. 

He told Dave that he’d had “a bit of a drug problem” before Vietnam and listed off a series of words Dave had never heard before. Klaus showed him track marks and scars and told him half-true stories that Dave found both amusing and horrifying.

“I’m glad you survived all that,” Dave told him. 

Klaus grinned wryly. “Survived drug addiction and the streets just to get shipped off to Nam! I must have the worst karma.”

Dave hummed. “But if you hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have met you.” 

Of course he liked Klaus when he was chatty (which was good, since that was almost always), but he liked shocking him into silence as well. Which was somewhat surprising to Dave and how he thought of himself as a person, but everything about Klaus and Dave’s reactions to him blindsided him. Klaus was wild and often insincere and flighty and laughed when he shouldn’t while Dave tended to be serious, steadfast, and always on the lookout to lend a helping hand. From the outside it might seem they wouldn’t work, but somehow they did. 

The months passed. Even though war was horrifying being with Klaus made it bearable. They lost friends and Klaus showed the depths of his compassion while Dave discovered a rage hidden deep inside him. Dave was the more vocally affectionate one but Klaus was the one who went and got a stylized wat tattoo that said “Klaus loves Dave” on his stomach and that Dave couldn’t help but worship every time he saw it. Dave learned how to hurt Klaus in all the ways that drove him wild with pleasure and then also learned how to live with himself for purposely inflicting pain on someone he loved. 

They shared everything and learned each other's lives. Their heartbeats echoed each other perfectly.  
\---

“Tonight’s the night, babe,” Klaus crooned, shoving his nose along the shell of Dave’s ear. 

Dave grinned at him. They had pilfered a bottle of whiskey and were sharing it in another hotel room in Saigon. Dave was starting to hear rumors of the war ending and couldn’t help but think of the future. A future with Klaus. Permanent R&R. “For what?” 

They were standing together, doing something between swaying against each other and dancing. Dave had his arms lazily draped over Klaus’s shoulders while Klaus had his wrapped around Dave’s waist, his fingertips pressing idly into the small of his back. “The night for deflowering!” 

Dave laughed through the arousal that thundered through him, nuzzling along the side of Klaus’s face. “Are you sure?” he murmured, kissing the ear right by his lips. 

Klaus gently bit his jaw. “I literally can’t tell you how sure I am.” 

This was another thing Klaus had taught him: the possibility of anal sex. (Though Dave hated the word “anal”- it sounded so clinical.) The first time Klaus had shown Dave how to finger him during a blowjob and Dave swore his brain had leaked out of his ears. He wasn’t sure how such a thing could feel good but Klaus never lied during sex and his reaction dispelled most lingering doubts and he trusted Klaus. 

They shared the whiskey and increasingly heated touches, their kisses growing deeper as they got more riled up. Klaus peeled Dave’s shirt off and insinuated his hands down the back of his jeans, gripping his bare ass in a way that made Dave giggle. 

One more mouthful of whiskey and they were naked on the bed, Klaus underneath Dave as he lavished attention on his stomach tattoo and bit at his hip bones, loving the feel of Klaus’s skin twitching under his mouth. Klaus shoved a bottle of oil that he’d bought earlier at him and Dave got the hint but that didn’t necessarily mean he was going to follow it. 

His bites got rougher and the way Klaus started whining and squirming beneath him was more intoxicating than the liquor. Dave sucked a dark purple mark on the soft skin above Klaus’s dick, ignoring the way it bumped into his face as Klaus thrashed in pleasure. Klaus was babbling something above him, but Dave decided that a better use of his time would be to rub the stubble on his jaw along Klaus’s pale inner thighs for a moment before working on another mark there, eventually followed by a matching one on the other side. 

Distantly he heard Klaus saying things like _should have never taught you- oh jesus you’re so- god I can’t wait for you to fuck me_ , but with the blood roaring in his ears he couldn’t be certain. He dragged his mouth away from the bruise he’d created, running his tongue along the crease of Klaus’s groin back up to his flat stomach and the lines that spelled their love. 

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a beast in the sack?” Klaus panted, an arm draped over his forehead. 

Dave smiled down at him, grabbing the oil and pouring a generous amount into his palm. “I’m pretty sure you have.”

“Oh. Well I definitely don’t tell you often en-” Klaus cut himself off with a grunt and a moan as Dave gently inserted one finger in his ass. His knees curled up, prompting Dave to gently bite the inside of one before he lowered his mouth to Klaus’s dick. 

Here was another surprise: how much Dave loved giving blowjobs. (Not that he’d thought about it extensively before meeting Klaus, but still.) Except he was very particular. Klaus would drop to his knees anywhere and at anytime, but Dave liked having Klaus spread on his back and in a space where he could really take his time. He didn’t just cover his teeth and open his throat and sink to task; he liked licking and sucking and (very gently) biting and panting and stroking and humming and anything else that came to mind in the moment. 

Klaus said he hated it but then he never actually complained and made the hottest noises when Dave took his slow, sweet time. He moaned as Dave suckled precum from the tip and laved the flat of his tongue along the thick vein on the underside of his dick, meanwhile keeping his finger busy probing and stretching. 

Stretching Klaus out on his fingers was something he had been reluctant to do until Klaus showed him just how he liked it as well as how _much_ he liked it. That had been a couple of weeks ago in a private pup tent with Klaus straddling his belly and finger-fucking himself, his breathing low and ragged as he struggled to stay quiet while Dave frantically jacked himself off beneath the spread of his thighs. 

“Imagine-” Klaus had said huskily that night, still hushed over the buzz of evening insects. “Imagine it was your dick in me instead.”

Dave swore he’d passed out. Klaus told him he was being dramatic, which was really the pot calling the kettle black, in Dave’s opinion. 

But it all led to this moment, with Dave two fingers comfortably deep inside of Klaus while the other man gasped for air, hands scrabbling at the cheap headboard. Unfortunately… now he was stuck. Not literally; he just had never gotten further than this. How was a third finger supposed to fit inside of Klaus? Much less his dick? He wasn’t the biggest but he also wasn’t the smallest. Was it really supposed to go inside of another guy like that?

“Oh my god stop thinking,” Klaus moaned, grinding his hips down and making Dave realize he’d stopped moving his hand. “You’re fine, you’re perfect, everything is perfect I swear.” 

Dave pulled back a little, anxiety now mixed with the arousal thrumming in his bloodstream. He bit at Klaus’s knee again. “I just… I don’t want to hurt you.”

Klaus groaned and squirmed. “If we’re gonna talk then you have to get your hand out of me. I just- there’s no way I have enough brain cells to do both at the same time.”

“You’re always talking, so I doubt that,” Dave teased, easing his fingers free. His heart skipped a beat when Klaus’s hole spasmed around the loss, but he sat back regardless. 

“Okay.” Klaus went boneless for a moment before he pushed himself up, sitting so he was cross-legged in front of him. He reached over for the whiskey bottle and took a swig before handing it to Dave. “Okay, talking. Talking. I get that you’re nervous, babe. I remember my first time… Okay I totally don’t to the point where I can’t even lie about it, but I’ve done this kind of a lot and it’s awesome and I swear you’re gonna love it, too.” 

Dave was used to this: taking the lot of information Klaus threw at him and sorting through what he didn’t understand until he got to the bit he wanted to focus on. “I guess… I mean, I just want it to be good for you.” He took a gulp of the amber liquid and passed it back, welcoming the burn through his sinuses. 

“It’s gonna be _so_ good for me,” Klaus assured him with a purr, one hand on Dave’s knee as the other tilted the bottle. 

Dave chewed on his lip for a moment. Had he ever known a minute’s insecurity before he’d met Klaus? “But also… I want this to matter, I guess. You say you’ve done this before and I don’t want this to be another notch on the bedpost, or whatever. I want it to matter to you that we’re here and we’re doing this, you know?” 

Klaus blinked at him, frowning a little. They stared at each other for a minute, Dave trying to keep his face as open and honest as he could while Klaus studied him. “I love you,” he said, carefully and deliberately. 

Dave reached over, resting his hand on the one Klaus had on his knee. “I know. I love you, too.” He hadn't meant to question Klaus's devotion.

Klaus shook his head a little, reaching over to drop the bottle back on the floor. “No, listen.” His green eyes met Dave’s. “I love you, David Katz. I have never loved anyone like this before. I want… I want _everything_ with you. I want tonight and tomorrow and the rest of our lives.” Klaus’s voice faltered for a moment. “And maybe that’s kind of a lot but, just, god, as long as you’re in my life I’m gonna be happy, you know? And, like, fuck the rest of it. We don’t have to do this- we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Just… Just stay with me.”

The way his voice rose at the end, creating a statement just shy of a question, shattered Dave’s heart. “Yes,” he answered quickly, reaching over to grab Klaus’s other hand. “God, yes I want to stay with you. I want- I want everything, too. Klaus, I want to be wherever you are.” 

Klaus’s eyes were shining as he freed his hands and crawled into Dave’s lap, cupping his face as he drew him into a kiss. Dave closed his eyes, resting his hands on Klaus’s hips, feeling hot tears fall onto his cheeks from above him. “Fucking sap,” Klaus accused, sitting back a little and sniffing. His slender, cool hand brushed the wetness from Dave’s face before he attended to his own. “Usually when guys make me cry during sex it’s nothing like this!” 

Dave laughed wetly, rubbing his thumbs along the sharp edges of Klaus’s hip bones. “Sorry. Kind of.” They kissed again, sweetly. “I just love you and I only ever want to do right by you.” He still didn’t know everything about Klaus and probably never would, but he was determined not to become yet another bad memory for the other man. He didn’t want to be a skeleton in the closet or a ghost in Klaus’s memory. He only ever wanted to bring him happiness. 

Klaus smiled at him adoringly, running his fingers up into his bristly hair. “I don’t know how I did anything worthy enough in my life to deserve you,” he mumbled. And Dave wanted to refute that, but he felt the same exact way about Klaus. 

They relaxed into each other, kissing wetly and letting their hands roam. Though the mood had been gently murdered earlier it was quick to come back, evident in the way Klaus’s hips started shifting and the renewed roar of blood in Dave’s ears. 

“Okay,” Klaus suddenly said, pulling back. “But do you want to fuck me? Yes or no only circle one.” 

Dave laughed at him, helplessly. “Yes. Of course I do.” 

“Oh thank god.” They fell back to making out, Dave running his hands along Klaus’s chest and cupping the bottom of his rib cage. When they had first met Klaus had been too skinny- basically wasted. Now he was lean and muscular from the marching and lifting and shooting and fighting. Dave curled his hands around his biceps, feeling the gentle bulge of muscle there.

Klaus lowered his hips so they could grind together, gasping into each other’s mouths. Dave dropped a hand to Klaus’s ass, gripping him possessively and holding him close. The air quickly became stifling between them and Dave started to feel that curl of pleasure in his lower belly heat up. 

“Okay,” Klaus gasped as he drew away, blinking like he’d just woken up. “I know how to make this easier, but I’m not sure you’ll like it.” He pulled away from Dave and flipped over onto his hands and knees, looking back over his shoulder. 

Dave frowned a little and scooted closer, addicted to Klaus’s body heat and scent. “But I can’t see your face. I don’t like this.” 

An absurd giggle escaped Klaus. “I knew it, you big sap.” He reached back and grabbed one of Dave’s hands, pulling it over his shoulder and rearranging them until Dave was also on his hands and knees, blanketing Klaus’s back. “See?” Klaus breathed, shifting his ass back against him. “Easier access and you’re still all up in my business.”

Dave could feel Klaus’s spine against his chest and was close enough to kiss his ear and decided they could try it this way. He also liked having the expanse of Klaus’s shoulders and neck at his disposal, that black and white tiger flashing its teeth at him from Klaus’s tanned skin. 

He located the oil and Klaus dropped to his elbows, curling his left hand around the arm over his shoulder and biting at his wrist as Dave gently pushed two fingers back into Klaus. It was definitely smoother this way; the angle was perfect and Klaus seemed to open up to him easier. Plus Klaus could shove back onto his fingers when he got impatient, letting Dave know that he needed to pick up the pace. 

Dave gently scissored and twisted his fingers as Klaus started to get noisier, groaning and whining and muttering things too quiet for him to make out. He spread his legs impossibly wider and nipped at Dave’s wrist bone with his canines, panting hot air against his already over-heated skin. And so Dave introduced a third finger and had to pause for a moment, because he was having trouble breathing and Klaus was losing his damn mind beneath him. 

“ _Yes_ ,” Klaus was groaning longingly, bucking his hips impatiently. “Fuck it’s been so long and you’re so hot and so perfect god I just want you to fuck me through the mattress-”

Dave felt like his face was on fire and he was so light-headed he thought he might pass out (again). But he focused on breathing as he started thrusting and twisting his fingers, hypersensitive to every whine and thrash and gasp from Klaus. 

“C’mon,” Klaus told him, an eternity and half a second later. “Come on, babe, put your dick in me. You’re gonna love it and I’m gonna love it, fuck I love you, I love you so much this is going to rock your fucking world-” 

And so Dave pulled his fingers out, shuddering at the noise Klaus made at that, and dumped the rest of the oil over his cock, making sure he covered every inch of himself. Klaus was saying “yeah baby” and it was only then that Dave realized he was chanting Klaus’s name, mindless over what he was about to do, but then he was doing it. He started pushing into Klaus and there was a moment of resistance followed by Klaus opening up around his dick and shoving himself back and choking out noises that Dave knew would haunt him for the rest of his life. 

“Dave, Dave,” Klaus was saying, and then he was getting up onto just his knees and Dave sunk even deeper into him and he thought his heart was going to explode out his throat and ass and ears and dick. He wrapped an arm around Klaus’s chest to hold him as Klaus let his head fall back against Dave’s shoulder, breath hitching around his moans. 

They shuddered against each other for a few moments, letting their bodies back away from a dangerous precipice, wanting to last longer than a few tense seconds. Klaus mumbled something and Dave turned his head, pressing his tongue and teeth to the line of Klaus’s neck, tasting salt. Klaus brought his right hand up to the back of Dave’s head while his left laced through Dave’s fingers across his chest. 

And then he shifted back. 

Dave shivered and thrust up into Klaus, snaking his right hand down and around to Klaus’s sweaty inner thigh, gripping it tightly. Klaus moaned gently and somehow managed to open his legs even wider and shift his hips back, relying more on Dave's strength to keep him upright. 

“C’mon, soldier,” Klaus giggled madly. “Fuck me like you mean it.” 

So he did. Keeping Klaus spread and still with the holds on his chest and thigh, Dave fucked up into him slowly, but deeply. Klaus sighed happily and tilted his head further, just inviting Dave to suck a dark mark into his neck. 

It was too much and not enough and it was gorgeous for timeless minutes, but then Klaus was saying, “Wait, babe, wait” and they untangled and Klaus fell over on his back and looped his legs around Dave’s waist, drawing him in and moaning when Dave sank back into him smoothly. They kissed for a moment but Klaus was whining and bucking and pushy so Dave sat back up, gripped his hips tightly, and started thrusting into him with increasing speed, dizzy with the way Klaus cried out and arched his back and demanded _more more harder Dave god please._

That span of time- staring at the way Klaus’s chest hitched with his breathing and the dark curls on the bedspread and his HELLO GOODBYE hands twisting into the sheets by his head and his jaw working around whining noises because he could never ever be quiet and his flushed cock leaking across the love tattoo permanently etched onto his stomach- was breathless, timeless, endless, perfect. 

And then Klaus opened his green eyes framed by dark lashes and smiled helplessly at him and Dave felt like he’d been shot through the heart. His stomach swirled up his chest and he thrust a few more times, sporadically, before burying himself as deep as he could in Klaus and coming so hard his toes tingled. 

“Dave,” Klaus was saying, reaching up, but Dave was already bending over and kissing him deeply as he wrapped a broad hand around Klaus’s dick and pumped maybe half a dozen times before Klaus clenched down around him and bucked up into his own orgasm. 

Gasping, Dave gently pulled out of Klaus and collapsed beside him, his breath punching through his lungs. He kept an arm slung around Klaus’s waist and so he felt when the other man turned to face him. Dave shifted onto his side to meet him and they kissed. And they kissed and kissed and kissed.  
\---

R&R was over the next day and they were thrown back into the jungle. The Sky Soldiers were largely responsible for interrupting the chain of men and supplies entering Vietnam through the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the A Shau Valley. The commanding general got wind of a potentially large shipment sneaking through the jungle on Ap Bia Mountain, so they were given their orders and airlifted out without fanfare. 

Dave watched the back of Klaus's neck as he walked behind him, ideas of possible futures flitting through his mind. He had never heard of two guys living together before, but the notion didn't seem so far-fetched. What if they had a home and a shop in one? He wasn't sure what they would sell but it sounded possible, especially with the money they would get from the army. He would make sure his sisters and his mom were comfortable and he and Klaus could live quietly together. Well, as quiet as Klaus could get anyway.

The Sky Soldiers spent the afternoon setting up a temporary base camp, loudly joking and harassing each other, before moving a couple of miles up the mountain and digging their trench. The sun slowly set and the mosquitoes got rowdy. At some point Dave straightened and found Klaus wrestling with one of the guys, his face open and his posture relaxed. Dave loved him so hard his heart hurt. 

Stations were prepped, guns were loaded, and MREs were consumed before they hunkered down for a long night in the mud. There was good intel that the VCs would be coming right through this area; this was their big chance to get an upper hand and disrupt a major supply chain to the well-occupied valley.

Dave lay on his elbows in the mud beside Klaus. They couldn't speak or smoke or do much of anything except wait in the dark, but it was just like all those nights together at base camp where Dave and Klaus passed the time just grinning stupidly at each other. Dave took one hand from his gun and lay it between them. From one breath to the next Klaus's fingers laced between his own, dirt and grit tickling their palms. 

Gunfire always surprised Dave. And all it took was a single shot before the night lit up with noise and lights and screams. Dave half-heartedly aimed and shot, his mind torn between his daydreams and the sound of Klaus laughing to his right. He was always giggling through his anxiety and laughing when he didn't mean it, forever throwing people off any path that might lead to the truth of him. Dave would never, ever understand why he was the special one that got to see the honest Klaus, the one who had largely abandoned that voice-thing months ago, the one who loved Dave back fiercely and completely. 

Suddenly there was an explosion and a sharp pain in his chest. There was a brief, insane moment when he thought it was just his overflowing love for Klaus, but then he couldn't breathe. Oh, he couldn’t breathe. 

Someone was rolling him over. Klaus was screaming and crying and no, _no_ he had never ever wanted to be responsible for that expression. He had never wanted to make Klaus upset or sad or angry or anything other than the blissful happy he so deserved. Dave’s chest hurt so much and he knew that it was the echo of Klaus's heart shattering.

Dave tried to tell him he was sorry, to tell Klaus that he loved him, to tell him he would be right back he just had to…

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
